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The Yinchorri, or Yinchori, were a species of sentient, corpulent, turtle-like, green-skinned reptilians with an inherent immunity to telepathic uses of the Force, including mind tricks. They were born from eggs and had a great endurance when facing pain or heat. Native to the planetYinchorr, the Yinchorri were divided into two castes: the Intelligentsia, who governed through the Council of Elders of each city-state, and a highly aggressive warrior caste. They were also known to value family ties. They had strong willpower that allowed them to resist attempts by slavers to enslave them. They also had the skill to develop specialized technology. However, they were poor strategists. Yinchorri culture was best characterized by the expression, "might makes right"; they considered anything they were able to take and hold by force to be rightfully theirs—anything they disliked was to be destroyed. They were commonly found as pirates, mercenaries or in other violent jobs.

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The Yinchorri, also known as Yinchori,[2] were sentient, reptilianhumanoids with sturdy constitutions.[1] Members of the species were turtle-like in several respects, such as the head; however, they were anthropomorphic with regard to limb position.[2][6] Although they were born in clutches from eggs,[1] women showed natural breasts.[4] There were no other appreciable differences between male and female Yinchorri. The Yinchorri body was covered by thick skin, which was dark green or brown in color.[1]

Adult Yinchorri could attain a height between 2.4 to 2.7 meters.[3] They had greater endurance than Humans, allowing them to withstand pain,[1] and they were more resistant to heat because of their cold blood.[3] They started adolescence at eight years of age and were considered biologically mature at 15. The first ill effects of age appeared at 41 years of age, with seniority being reached at 60, which was 20 years before the end of their life expectancy.[1]

The species was divided into two breeds: The Intelligentsia, who performed governing tasks, and the warrior caste,[4][7] who were known to use violence in response to threats.[7] No matter the breed, all the Yinchorri had a natural resistance to the mind-controlling uses of the Force,[3][6] due to an adaptation of their Midi-chlorians—microscopic, symbiotic life forms that resided inside the cells of all living things—which caused the symbionts to generate Force-devoid bubbles around their hosts. The Sith LordDarth Plagueis believed that the Yinchorri had evolved their Force resistance as a response to a past threat to their survival, and he suspected that the species were naturally strong in the Force.[5] However, that resistance did not extend to those Force powers that did not directly affect the will of the target, such as telekinesis.[3][6] A small percentage of the Yinchorri could also manipulate the Force.[3]

The Yinchorri were known for their strength of character and utilitarianism. Covetous and domineering, they considered themselves worthy of anything that came within their clutches—provided they could keep it from others[1]—using the expression, "might makes right" as their motto and moral authorization.[7] Those things that they disliked or had no need for were deemed worthy only to be destroyed.[4] Due to a lack of neural pathways in the Yinchorri forebrain, members of the species had an instinctive disposition towards violence that rendered them unruly and unpredictable.[5] Yinchorri only became fiercer and more obstinate when confronted by opponents;[1] should such rivals prove a threat to Yinchorri or their loved ones, the reptilians' demeanor could explode into physical violence[8]—although direct threats were not always necessary to inflame a Yinchorri's temper to the point of physical confrontation.[4]

The Yinchorri lived in city-states on the planetYinchorr. Each community had its own military and its own rulers. Most city-states were ruled by a Council of Elders headed by a single leader. Thus, the Yinchorri had no planet-wide ruler.[1] The Council was highly respected by the Yinchorri.[2] Each city-state also had smaller communities around it providing the city-state with resources such as minerals and farmed food; the number of those settlements was used to measure the polity's influence.[1]

The Yinchorri were inept strategists and easily tricked by manipulative individuals who preyed on their naïveté. As such, they were led by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious and his minions not only to rise up against the Galactic Republic,[7] but also to make tactical moves that damned their own war effort.[9] During the years of the Galactic Civil War, agents of the Galactic Empire made good use of the Yinchorri gullibility by betraying them after tricking a Yinchorri commander and his pilot. Those Yinchorri brought Leia Organa to Yinchorr, following Imperial orders, and then were promptly killed by the Empire before the Yinchorri could understand the reasons behind the Empire's reversal.[2]

To the Yinchorri, social structure was a natural part of their existence,[8] as each Yinchorri was always part of several communities: First the childhood family, then the city-state where they grew up, then the work environment, and finally the new family they formed with a mate. Yinchorri particularly valued the institution of marriage, and the species mated for life. In some cases, a widow or widower suffered so much that she or he might die of sorrow only days after the mate's death.[1] Marriages were frequently arranged by the parents of the couple to increase the power of the family; polygyny, the form of polygamy in which a male had several wives, was not unheard of. Neither was marriage among a Yinchorri and a non-Yinchorri alien. Yinchorri were known to distrust aliens as they were not born among their clans, but this taboo could be broken through inter-species marriage. For example, in 33 BBY, the daughters of several Yinchorri Elders married the same Devaronian for political reasons. From that point on, the Yinchorri Elders considered that Devaronian and his family to be a part of their own families.[4]

The Yinchorri developed technology adapted to their own needs and environment. An example was the Yinchorri flutter-pack, a backpack with four insect-like wings whose fluttering allowed the user to fly for one hour. The device was capable of carrying a cargo of 200 kilograms; its flight ceiling was 1,000 meters. The user,[3] commonly a Yinchorri,[10] utilized a gauntlet to control speed and direction, with a hand-held weapon in the free hand. Those devices were often worn in conjunction with protective goggles. Upon draining of its power, the flutter-pack had to be re-charged for eight hours before it could be re-used.[3]

The Yinchorri had their own language, also known as Yinchorri,[3] which was used to christen native fauna such as the rolk-mangir.[8] Many Yinchorri learned to speak Galactic Basic Standard as a second language, but few learned to read it.[3] Yinchorri tended to use one-word names. Some examples were names like Denrak, Emterrk, Jetar, Merzok, Qayayir, Solhek and Varuk.[3]

The Yinchorri evolved on a rocky, desert world known as Yinchorr,[1] located in the Expansion Region.[11] Their thick skin evolved as a means of protection against the arid environment of their homeworld.[1] Yinchorr had little in the way of natural resources.[8] It was, however, rich in predators, including the rolk-mangir.[2][12] The Yinchorri eventually organized themselves into rival city-states. In the most ancient epochs of Yinchorr's history, Tol-Kachorn was the strongest of these, with almost one hundred small communities providing it with resources and five lesser city-states serving as its satellites. Several other polities tried to challenge the supremacy of Tol-Kachorn, confrontations that sparked wars of conquest that always ended in the defeat of the contender—and the reign of chaos.[1]

Circa 500 BBY, Yinchorr was charted by the Galactic Republic.[8] Alien scouts decided that the Yinchorri were too underdeveloped to be useful to the Republic, and the planet was deemed too deficient in resources to be useful for a settlement. On the scouts' advisement, the Republic disregarded the world[1] and the Republic refused to admit Yinchorr as a member, despite the desire of the Yinchorri to become part of the pan-galactic democracy. In 67 BBY, the Yinchorri Council of Elders sent a delegation led by Qayhuk, the Council's secretary, to a meeting of some of the galaxy's most influential beings on the moonSojourn, to request that the Muun power broker Hego Damask lobby the Republic on their behalf. Damask, the public persona of Darth Plagueis, had heard rumors of the alleged Force resistance of the Yinchorri and he attempted to perform a mind trick on Qayhuk. Impressed by the secretary's immunity to Force-based influence, Damask agreed that his company, Damask Holdings, would exert pressure on the Republic to give the Yinchorri a seat in the Galactic Senate.[5]

Around 58 BBY, the Yinchorri joined the galactic community, but most planetary representatives assumed that the species would go unnoticed in the grand scheme of galaxy-wide politics.[14] The Yinchorri officially became members of the Republic the following year[3] as a result of Damask Holdings' influence,[5] and they were eventually given representation in the Galactic Senate.[3] On attaining their seat in the Senate, the Yinchorri Council of Elders provided Damask with a convicted Yinchorri murderer as a gift, and he experimented on the criminal to learn more about the innate resistance of the Yinchorri to Force-based suggestion. After two years of study, Plagueis discovered a way by which he could bypass the convict's Force immunity and compel the murderer to become placid. The Muun developed plans to assemble an army of Yinchorri to wage war against the Jedi Order, so he traveled to the planet Kamino to discuss with the Kaminoancloners the possibility of creating a force of obedient, cloned Yinchorri soldiers. However, the Kaminoan scientistKo Sai expressed doubts that compliance could be bred into the Yinchorri without compromising their violent tendencies. Despite her concerns, Plagueis decided to press ahead with the development of the army and provided the Kaminoans with the Yinchorri convict. After repeated attempts, all efforts to successfully clone the Yinchorri failed.[5]

The Yinchorri were introduced to interstellar travel through means that, according to rumor, involved stolen technology. The species began to work offworld in violent occupations, making good use of their natural drive.[3] They soon adapted to the galaxy and developed a love for the latest military technology, including starships.[7] Even then, few Yinchorri felt the need to settle in other, less inhospitable systems. Those who did so had to take with them all of their relatives and their relatives' families, which usually meant the relocation of an entire town or city-state.[1] The Yinchorri colonized three other planets in the Yinchorri system: Yitheeth, which had only seven percent of the surface covered in land and was otherwise a shallow sea; Yibikkoror, characterized by its dense atmosphere;[7] and Uhanayih, a rock with no life except for the settlers. The word Uhanayih was related to myths and legends about living in the "spiritual world."[15] The galaxy however, understanding that the Yinchorri were aggressive, restricted the sale of starships to the species.[4] The HumanJedi MasterTharence Wo researched the Yinchorri and wrote detailed reports for the use of future Jedi.[7] Wo mistakenly believed that Uhanayih was a mythical place instead of a real colony.[15]

Slavers raided the planet Yinchorr, trying to capture and sell the locals. They discovered that Yinchorri groups were more likely to fight to their deaths than face the fate of slaves; even those uncooperative Yinchorri that were captured preferred to be executed or starve to death than obey a new master. Eventually, slavers realized that the spirit of resistance was embedded in the species' social structure; such traffickers subsequently avoided Yinchorr's population.[8]

During the last years of the Old Republic,[14] Plagueis' apprentice[3] Darth Sidious concluded that the Yinchorri were a threat to his plans of galactic domination[14] due to their stubbornness and resistance to Force mind tricks.[15] Following the failure of Plagueis' plan to clone the Yinchorri, Plagueis and Sidious hoped to engineer a crisis to test whether the Yinchorri could be fashioned into an effective anti-Jedi army.[5] However, Sidious was also threatened by Supreme ChancellorFinis Valorum[6][15] and the Jedi Order,[14] and after realizing the futility of forging the Yinchorri into a controllable fighting force,[5] he decided to manipulate the Yinchorri so that they became an apparent hazard to the Galactic Republic.[14] The Sith wanted the Yinchorri to attack and wage a war against the Jedi, hoping that such a conflict would weaken all his enemies and destroy some of them.[15] Sidious also hoped to use the Yinchorri to test Valorum's ability to handle a crisis.[5]

Needing an agent to interact with the Yinchorri[15] without being discovered himself, Sidious recruited the Devaronian smuggler, Vilmarh "Villie" Grahrk, passing on to him a timetable along with whatever resources the Devaronian needed, but not telling Grahrk about his motives. Grahrk was sent to Yinchorr with advanced combat technology with which he defeated the Yinchorri guards. Having impressed the Yinchorri, he was granted an audience with five important Yinchorri leaders, including Jorek, Kardek and Sothek. Grahrk convinced the Yinchorri that they could increase their prominence in the galaxy by stealing several ships from the nearby shadowportGolden Nyss Shipyards, with Grahrk's help, as the Yinchorri were unable to pilot a starship at that point.[4] Grahrk promised that the Republic would not respond with a military attack.[15]

One of the Yinchorri leaders refused to trust Grahrk, as he was a stranger, and so Kardek offered to sponsor Grahrk by marrying his daughter Vooma to the Devaronian, prompting the other leaders to similarly offer their own daughters. Physically disliking Yinchorri women, Grahrk offered his son for the marriage in order to gain time. However, he did not have a child of his own and so Grahrk pretended that his nephew Olmar was his son and offered him to the Yinchorri. Grahrk made a deal with Olmar's father Holmar, offering him a part of the loot in exchange for Holmar's and Olmar's help.[4]

Raid on the Golden Nyss shipyards

Ferried by Vilmarh Grahrk, the Yinchorri attacked the shadowport, stole the ships there and blew up the shipyard.[4] Grahrk reprimanded the Yinchorri for that final move but the Yinchorri, not intimidated, felt that their duty was to destroy whatever they did not need.[4] The loot from the attack became the core of the Yinchorri's arsenal during the ensuing uprising. Over the next few years, the Yinchorri learned how to pilot their attack ships and starfighters.[14]—the latter of which included other technology stolen from twelve systems.[16] They were also provided with armor made of cortosis, a material resistant to Jedi lightsabers.[7]

"This is Mayvitch Seven! We need help! If you receive this transmis skvt…tact the Senate—warn them about the Yinchoreeeee."

―Last transmission from an Immalian officer to the Jedi Council before his death[src]

The Yinchorri withdrew their representatives from the Galactic Senate[5] and began an attack on several planets near Yinchorr,[7] satisfying their aggressive urges. Pushed by Sidious, Vilmarh Grahrk incited the Yinchorri to increase their assault.[4] The Yinchorri then defeated a mining colony of ImmalianHumans on the moon of Mayvitch 7. One of the Immalians contacted the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and warned them of the danger the reptiles posed,[7] bringing the matter to the attention of the Jedi Order.[14]

Having met with Supreme Chancellor Valorum, Jedi Master Mace Windu[4] sent two Jedi, Naeshahn and her Padawan, Ebor Taulk, to deal with the Yinchorri. Unfamiliar with the Yinchorri's strengths, both Jedi were killed and mutilated by the Yinchorri, who then sent their bodies to Valorum's office[4][7] with the help of Sidious' aidesKinman Doriana and Sate Pestage.[5] After that event, the Jedi decided to invest in intelligence and learned about the Yinchorri use of cortosis, their unusual physiology, and the rumored existence of the species' main command center.[7] The Yinchorri, indeed, had built such a center, hidden on Uhanayih, as the leaders of the uprising correctly believed it would be difficult to discover.[15]

Windu traveled to Yinchorr himself with several other Jedi: Three unarmed Consular-class space cruisers, each with a Jedi team, would be sent to the Yinchorri system; that provided each team to search one inhabited planet in the system for the command center. Windu's team was sent to Yinchorr, Adi Gallia's to Yitheet, and Micah Giiett's to Yibikkoror. Yoda and other Jedi remained on Coruscant looking for new information.[7] The three cruisers were attacked by Yinchorri as soon as they arrived in the Yinchorri system,[7][14] but the Jedi were able to escape.[7][10][17]

Raid on the Jedi Temple

Sidious sent several Yinchorri to infiltrate the Jedi Temple of Coruscant and make use of the absence of the most powerful Jedi to kill Jedi children.[7][9][10] Strategically, that was an unwise move for the Yinchorri, as it reduced their strength while gaining them nothing of significant value.[9] The Yinchorri believed they would find the Jedi flat-footed, but Grand Master Yoda had felt the danger through the Force. As a result, the Jedi were prepared.[10] The Yinchorri commandos knocked down the lone Jedi watchman, Jude Rozess,[10] before being met by a Jedi force led by Yoda. The Yinchorri put up resistance, and killed both the Jedi Rozess and Tieren Nie-Tan, but were defeated. The soldiers were questioned, but they knew nothing important.[10] Jedi Masters Yoda and Oppo Rancisis understood then that a third party was manipulating the Yinchorri, and that the Galactic Senate would immediately approve punitive measures against them after that attack;[10] Sidious's political influence, however, delayed that measure.[15]

Adi Gallia's team visited the only permanent settlement on Yitheeth, and were attacked by Yinchorri commanded by Olmar Grahrk. Grahrk was captured and questioned, but he did not know that the command center was on Uhanayih.[10] The Jedi then suspected that the Devaronians were the party manipulating the Yinchorri.[18] The Yibikkoror team, meanwhile, was having more trouble, constantly being attacked by Yinchorri infantry and light air forces.[10] Eventually, they were rescued. As the command center had not been found on Yitheeth or Yibikkoror, Gallia's and Giiett's teams joined Windu's squad on Yinchorr. Jedi scouts Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi confirmed, however, that there was no command center on the planet, only a staging area. The Yinchorri destroyed the Jedi cruiser and harassed the Jedi with flutter-packs and customized tanks. The other Jedi arrived in time to reinforce Windu in a battle that took the lives of three Jedi and many Yinchorri.[18]

Masters Windu and Yaddle soon discovered that the command center was on Uhanayih. When they reported that fact to Valorum, the Chancellor used the information and all of his influence to pass the Yinchorri embargo act, an official sanction against Yinchorr. Valorum also sent four navy attack groups of the Judicial Forces to reinforce the Jedi. At the same time, Olmar Grahrk contacted his relatives through the communication system of the Jedi ship where he had been imprisoned; the Jedi tracked the call and discovered the exact location of the command center.[15] The other Devaronians escaped the system,[9] deserting without even telling the Yinchorri.[15] The joint Judicial and Jedi fleet cut through the Yinchorri naval defenses in Uhanayih,[15] even though the Yinchorri still tried to counter-attack.[19] Overwhelmed by a superior force, the Yinchorri leaders surrendered and ordered the other members of their species to surrender.[15]

The Chancellor then quarantined the Yinchorri system, forbidding transport to and from there.[15] Sidious had managed to end with the potential threat of the Yinchorri for his plans. He had also reduced Valorum's influence, as he had to call in important favors,[15] and also because Valorum's term was suddenly tainted with the greatest intergalactic conflict in eleven years since the end of the Stark Hyperspace War and the Mandalorian Civil War.[20] Ten years after the conflict, Armand Isard, director of the Senate Bureau of Intelligence, publicly talked about the Yinchorri Uprising and several other disasters that should have been anticipated.[21]

As of 3 ABY, the Empire had named Marcellin Wessel governor of Yinchorr. Wessel decided to use Yinchorr as bait in a scheme to capture Princess Leia Organa, a high-ranking member of the Alliance to Restore the Republic.[8] Wessel captured several members of the Council of Elders and kept them hostage, offering their lives to the Yinchorri people in exchange for Organa. Though Wessel did not intend to honor his word, the Yinchorri were unaware of that duplicity.[1][2] The Yinchorri felt that the life of a Human stranger was less important than the lives of their leaders and prepared a trap for Organa.[1] They pretended to want to join the Alliance and asked for Organa to visit Yinchorr.[2] Organa boarded a Yinchorri ship and, once they were in the atmosphere of Yinchorr, Imperial TIE fighters shot down the craft, something that surprised the naïve Yinchorri crew. Only Organa survived the crash, but she was captured and brought to Wessel. Wessel then ordered the Elder Yinchorri killed in front of Organa. However, the Princess had called for help, and her friend Luke Skywalker arrived in time to save her.[2]

Enraged with the Empire, the Yinchorri attacked Wessel and his forces and overthrew him. The Elders of Tol-Kachorn replaced his government and gave their support to the Alliance, allowing them to build bases in the Yinchorr system. Other city-states offered warriors and ships to the Alliance. The local Moff asked the Imperial High Command for permission to punish the Yinchorri. The planet was bombed, destroying both the Rebel bases and the city-states, including Tol-Kachorn.[1] The surviving Yinchorri became nomadic tribes[1] in what they came to consider one of the greatest tragedies to befall their planet. The species held Marcellin Wessel directly responsible for their losses.[3]

One month after the bombing, Yinchorr attracted Palpatine's personal attention. The Emperor wanted to unify all of the training centers of his personal Royal Guard, and chose Yinchorr as the place.[1] Eventually, the Empire cleansed Yinchorr of its native inhabitants, transforming it into a wasteland devoid of all life but the Imperials in the secret Imperial Royal Guard Academy.[24]

Yinchorr was still devoid of Yinchorri as of 11 ABY.[24][25] Later, during the times of the New Republic, Yinchorri and rolk-mangirs returned to the world[1][12] while Yinchorr was still under Imperial control. In 13 ABY, the New Republic waged a military campaign against the Empire to recover territory seized, following reports available to the Republic, by a clone of Palpatine. During that campaign, the New Republic seized Yinchorr. The surviving Yinchorri then unified under the banner of the surviving son of the leader of the Council of Elders of Tol-Kachorn, and settled in the fortress once used by the Imperial Guard. They began to re-build their civilization, but, although friendly to the New Republic, they refused to join it. However, as of 25 ABY, they did permit a New Republic military base and starship repair facility on their homeworld.[1] In 130 ABY, the Galactic Empire under the control of Darth Krayt recovered Yinchorr and used it as a training field for stormtroopers. Krayt still had control over Yinchorr as of 137 ABY,[26] with at least one Yinchorri serving among his stormtroopers.[27]

Although some Yinchorri settled on other planets in their home system,[7][15] they rarely felt the urge to live farther afield. Certain Yinchorri did move their extended families to other planets, however.[1] Furthermore, several Yinchorri pursued a career in the greater galaxy. They excelled as bodyguards, mercenaries, pirates, privateers, and smugglers.[3] Yinchorri were considered poor slaves, so slavers rarely bothered them.[8] Those extra-system activities were constrained during part of their history, as the Old Republic initially restricted the sale of starships to the Yinchorri and,[4] after the Yinchorri Uprising, approved an official embargo to the system.[15] Following the uprising, Darth Sidious showed footage of the Yinchorri raid on the Jedi Temple to his apprentice Darth Maul. While he was sickened by how the Yinchorri were easily misled by the Jedi, Maul believed that the warriors' mission would have been successful had he been leading their attack.[5] In 43 ABY, Allana Solo identified one Yinchorri waiting on a queue on the planet Taris.[28] In 137 ABY, at least one Yinchorri had become a stormtrooper for Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire.[27] Although some Yinchorri had the ability to use the power of the Force, none had become a Jedi as of 28 ABY.[3]

In 1997, the planet Yinchorr (although not the Yinchorri) re-appeared in the comic Crimson Empire, also written by Stradley and this time published by Dark Horse Comics. Crimson Empire explicitly states that there were no lifeforms on the planet Yinchorr except for the main characters of its story, but Ultimate Alien Anthology mentions the Yinchorri inhabiting Yinchorr both before and after this event, with no source explaining where the Yinchorri had been in the interim. The species returned, now spelled as "Yinchorri," in the comic Jedi Council: Acts of War, also by Stradley, published in 2000. Yinchorr is featured as an Imperial planet in the Star Wars: Legacy series,[26] and a Yinchorri is seen among the stormtroopers serving Darth Krayt,[27] as confirmed by author Jan Duursema on a web forum.[30] In 2012, the Yinchorri featured in James Luceno's novel Darth Plagueis.[5]

The role-playing game guide Alien Anthology makes several claims about the Yinchorri that are contradicted by later sources: It states that an adult Yinchorri stands between 1.7 and 2.2 meters tall, while the later Ultimate Alien Anthology suggests 2.4 to 2.7 meters instead. Alien Anthology also notes that a Yinchorri enters middle age at 51 standard years, while Ultimate Alien Anthology states the number as 41 years. Alien Anthology and Ultimate Alien Anthology also present different skill values for the average Yinchorri commoner. Lastly, Alien Anthology fails to provide rules for the natural resistance to mind control, something that Ultimate Alien Anthology corrects. As Ultimate Alien Anthology is the most recent source, this article assumes that the previous Alien Anthology was mistaken.

A Two-Edged Sword mentions an Imperial training center on Yinchorr as soon as 17 BBY, while other sources, including Ultimate Alien Anthology, say that the Empire was not interested enough in Yinchorr to establish a presence on its surface.